Its time we just admit that all this screening shiat is nothing more than an attempt to assuage us of our egos and that in reality if someone really really really wanted to blow up a plan they could do so very easily.

We've just been lucky because for the most part terrorists are pretty farking dumb

In the interest of not getting busted for a felony, let me say that "a friend" went through a domestic flight security line with multiple cigarette lighters, match packs and a knife in his carryon just yesterday. He also had a laptop battery with 172,800 joules of energy in it.

BowtoMogul:I'm glad they explicitly publish where its easiest to get a bomb through so the terrorist know where to get in...

I'm glad they explicitly publish where the TSA circus horribly fails so that they are forced either to implement checks that actually work or to admit that the whole thing is a farce and can be abolished.

This TSA fearmongering never made much sense to me. The more security measures are in place, the more pissed off people you have waiting in line, and if a terrorist wants to piss all over the illusion of safety they just need to blow up their IED where there are 90 people clustered together in the snaking line before the scanners.

I still think a "speed" line with no scanners for a couple months might illustrate to the government that this is a waste of money run by, as someone else pointed out, people absolutely without qualification to stop terrorists. "You can take flight X but there WON'T BE PATDOWNS, so you take that risk into your own hands. Be aware that your CHANCE OF DEATH has increased 0.00000000000004%."

You're more likely to get killed in a car accident driving to/from the airport, but whatever... fearmongering and facing reality will always be at odds.

Billions of dollars spent to solve yesterday's problem, and they don't even do that very well. Of course it won't be a plane next time, it'll be a container ship, or a U-Haul.

/Total security means turning into the kind of state you keep thinking we already are//Not worth it

And we demand it.

It's a no-win situation. Let's say someone puts a bomb in a hairbrush and gets caught. It doesn't matter if the bomb was successful or not.

So what happens?

A) the TSA bans hairbrushes.

B) The dumb but numerically important voting part of America screams "WHAT ARE YOU DOING ABOUT THE HAIRBRUSH THREAT?!?!"

We're whiners. I travel internationally often enough to see... "Oh. Wait. It's the same way EVERYWHERE, even on in-country flights in East Bumfark, Asia." I've never been there, but I'm told if you want a *real* TSA experience you should go to Israel.

And, again to given them credit, they DID stop the short guy in the Trench Coat and Fedora who was in the line in front of me holding a cannonball with a lit fuse....but only because he was also trying to bring a half-filled bottle of Dasani and some nail clippers on the plane at the same time.

And before anyone biatches about my comment about transport security being stupid because they all connect to the USA, let me tell you a CS,B.

Coming from Kathmandu, Nepal to Dehli, India, I had the tail end of a roll of electrical tape confiscated because I was stupid enough to offer to tape up the handle on a little-old-lady's luggage (the sort of thing you travel with tape for.) while waiting in the security line where they could see it and say "we have a situation, some guy has tape!"

Presumably this was because of the threat of my tying up a pilot with my remaining 3' of cheap vinyl tape.

The reason I bring this up is that there are no direct flights from Nepal to the US. This isn't a USA demand. It's stupid everywhere.

I could go on about the pissing match between the two countries that require TWO security checks, but that has nothing to do with the US. Yet.

fredklein:The TSA Blog just put out a post regarding the fact that they are starting to allow some knives on board. But, only if they meet certain guidelines. Like the blade being under 2.36 inches long (No, I'm not making that up), and not having "a molded grip". Because a 2.37 inch blade on a grip made up injection-molded plastic is somehow more dangerous than a 2.36 blade on a machined grip.

2.36 inches = 6 cm, so I'm guessing they used centimeters and then just converted.

maxheck:In the interest of not getting busted for a felony, let me say that "a friend" went through a domestic flight security line with multiple cigarette lighters, match packs and a knife in his carryon just yesterday. He also had a laptop battery with 172,800 joules of energy in it.

He still had to take off his shoes.

/ IT WAS A FRIEND, I TELL YOU!

All that stuff is legal, including the knife as of a few days ago. As for the laptop battery:

Electromax:This TSA fearmongering never made much sense to me. The more security measures are in place, the more pissed off people you have waiting in line, and if a terrorist wants to piss all over the illusion of safety they just need to blow up their IED where there are 90 people clustered together in the snaking line before the scanners.

I still think a "speed" line with no scanners for a couple months might illustrate to the government that this is a waste of money run by, as someone else pointed out, people absolutely without qualification to stop terrorists. "You can take flight X but there WON'T BE PATDOWNS, so you take that risk into your own hands. Be aware that your CHANCE OF DEATH has increased 0.00000000000004%."

You're more likely to get killed in a car accident driving to/from the airport, but whatever... fearmongering and facing reality will always be at odds.

They have a speed line: it's called TSA Pre-Check, and it makes me hate traveling so much less. You have to be a Trusted Traveler through Global Entry ($100 for 5 years and a background check), and then you don't have to take off shoes, jackets, belts, don't have to take out your laptop or liquids, and only go through a metal detector. There's also never a line. I travel for a living, so this was a freaking god-send.

Interesting. I'm stuck in retail, and we get secret shoppers (corporate spies) about every 2 months. As an assistant manager, my ass can be fired if I don't offer the Plastic Chinese Gadget O' The Month because I'm clearly not doing my job.

Why can't the same standards be put on the TSA? Being a crazy liberal, I would argue that failing to detect a bomb getting through security should have at least the same consequences as failing to offer a $4 multicolored spatula set to every halfwit that wanders in.